Small business bearing brunt of our below-par broadband

WHILE NBN Co and the Government continue to tinker around the edges of actual reform, small and medium sized businesses across regional Australia are being left behind.

I constantly hear from small businesses in regional communities which have had their internet and phone services dropping out four or five times a day. This can happen for months at a time.

A recent survey by ASX-listed Reckon, found that a staggering 83 per cent of small business lack confidence in the delivery of Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate NBN.

It also found that a majority of small business believe they will be left out of the digital economy. It is a shocking indictment on Mr Turnbull’s NBN and a stark warning to the Government and NBN Co, alike.

More needs to be done to improve business experience of the NBN. A good start to fixing this issue would be for the Government to prioritise a new consumer-rights framework.

A framework which is designed to address the issues and technologies of today, not the ones from last century. It needs to put consumers front and centre and give a clear process to have their issues resolved.

NBN Co must also improve their small business services with dedicated small and medium sized business products.

With the emergence of 5G services, NBN’s continued poor performance will only increase the risk of more businesses abandoning the network. The Government and NBN need to read the mood and signals being sent to them, and do something about the plight of local small business which have been left to bear the brunt of the Government’s poor broadband decisions. STEPHEN JONES, SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS